Chapter Six - Kestrel

Trust

It is an odd relationship, the one between the Sky and the Cloud. To any outsider, it might seem like the Cloud hates the Sky, but the Sky knew better. Because Tsuna knows that his Cloud has his own ways of showing acceptance of the Sky, and Hibari has long since shown his view that Tsuna is someone in desperate need of his protection - if only from Tsuna himself.

So when Reborn starts questioning Tsuna's choice (like he'd had one) of Cloud Guardian, Tsuna doesn't hesitate. "I'll thank you not to treat me like a complete idiot, not after everything." Tsuna replies icily. "I trust him, and that's enough for me."

Tsuna doesn't even notice the shocked look on Reborn's face before he left for his next training session with the older Hibari.

Arrival

Hibari is not terribly surprised that the herbivore Sawada had managed to be dragged ten years into the future. He is not surprised that he is immediately dropped into a fight when he arrives - in fact, it makes his day.

However, it is annoying that said fight separates him from the rest of the herbivores. Even more so when he hears the herbivore Sawada has been separated from the rest of the equally incompetent herbivores by an advanced version of the robot he'd fought not long ago (personally, at least). He knows that, theoretically at least, he could teleport to the other side of the rubble or even straight to Sawada, but there are too many variables, too many unknowns. Because he doesn't yet know where he is, doesn't know the laws, and so far as he knows the herbivores as a whole are blissfully unaware of magic and his status.

Instead, he growled at the group of panicking herbivores, and ordered them to find Sawada while he found another way through.

Attention

Hibari is very aware that he is ignorant of the current status of the Wizarding world. That, however, is easy enough to fix by teleporting to the Italian shopping district in Rome, getting his information, and then teleporting back to Tsuna once he was done. Of course, it would have been more difficult had he not visited Italy a few years before with his mother. (As for how he learned where he was, well, location spells are wonderful things.)

Of course, he could not have expected the sheer amount of attention he received. It wasn't limited to semi-covert glances, as there was more than one person who stopped whatever they were doing to blatantly stare at him as he walked down the street. Not to mention the steady stream of whispers that trailed him down the alley, saying something about a "miniaturized Guardian". Hibari steadfastly ignored it all, and resolutely entered the Italian Gringotts.

Upon leaving, he was seen scowling angrily, sending a few nearby witches tittering off in fear. For Hibari was incredibly displeased with what he'd learned. Not that if was much, since his future self had left instructions with the Goblins about his younger self, but there was enough to make him want to bite someone to death.

Allowing himself to scowl for a few more seconds, which made more than one wizard walk a little faster, Hibari calmed himself before going through the steps to locate his herbivore. Then, he disappeared with an inaudible pop.

Omake: Guardian?

Hibari knows better, after everything, than to take anything seriously he sees in any of the European Wizarding Newspapers. Still, following the whole England fiasco and his Decimo's unofficial official decision to relocate to Italy, he finds himself wasting a few hours every morning going through the various rags for the entertainment value.

So at first, he's sure it's a joke, someone (like that Skeeter woman) blowing the English fiasco horribly out of proportion, and mixing it with the few available hints they have of his history, truthful or not. He realizes it's not when he can't enter the magical shopping district of Rome, Del Piazza delle Mercury, without running the risk of getting mobbed.

Not only is it annoying that he can no longer do his own shopping, but it also leads to an increase in his already disturbingly high levels of fangirls. Which only gets worse when those bottom dwelling vultures known as reporters get news of his job policing the Vongola's magical interests. (How they get the idea he's saving them from rampant criminal activity, he'll never know.)

Kusakabe, on the other hand, just finds it all incredibly amusing.

AN: GAHHH! I absolutely hated this [edited for extreme anger and profanity] chapter! My muse disappeared from this story almost immediately after the last chapter, and only some of the lateness can be blamed in classes. Frankly, this chapter got stalle largely because I couldn't find any in depth info on Hibari's place in the TYL!arc, and I couldn't find any website where I could rereading it! My awesome beta Skyflyte12 tried to help and give me ideas, but my mind turned them into this implausible and utterly worthless crap, so I ended up with like 5 pages of stuff I had to trash. Seriously, herding cats would have been more productive.

Anyway, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna say screw this to the TYL!arc. Next chapter shall have everyone back the present and start the Shimon/magic revelation arc. By the way, the Omake takes place after all the HP books, but before the TYL!arc.

I am sorry for the lateness. I never meant for it to take me five months to post a new chapter, especially not one as short as this.

Also, thank you all for your reviews! They kept this story going, even when I wanted to light it on fire. However, to everyone who's asking about pairings, I'm actually not thinking about that, as I'm still not sure IF I want to put him with anybody. (Although I do always keep suggestions in mind.)

Two things, though. XxAlyssxX, I'm not really sure when they meet, but I do know that it is canon as Irie mentions it at some point that Hibari was helping him. And Cinnamon Kelly, He does know how to use a wand, but the type of Japanese magic that Hibari tends to use focuses more on ofuda and chants. Although, of course he also loves destructive magics that require a wand, he just doesn't tend to need it in everyday life. (Besides, he's a bit like Snape in disliking "all that foolish wand waving".)

To everyone else, thank you again for the reviews! And see you all next time!

~Ja ne!